Google Ad Tool Targets Voters by District

Some congressional districts snake across multiple media markets or divide one neighbor from another, presenting a challenge to candidates targeting ads for voters in those individual seats.

Google has built a new tool that gives candidates and outside groups the ability to pinpoint voters online in all 435 congressional districts, including the most awkwardly drawn or those transformed by the decennial redistricting process.

This new tool from Google’s political unit marks the latest evolution in online advertising. For years, candidates have been able to target online ads by ZIP Codes and even street addresses, but this tool makes it easier for campaigns and interest groups to target voters within the boundaries of an individual congressional seat.

“Starting today, in addition to targeting specific zip codes, we’re enabling an even more useful solution that allows political campaigns to reach voters within a specific congressional district,” the Google Politics & Election Team wrote in a blog post expected to go online Friday.

In the post, the Google team cites Maryland’s 6th congressional district, as the perfect example of a district where campaigns would benefit from utilizing the new tool because the seat covers multiple media markets and was dramatically reshaped in the once-a-decade redistricting process.

While television and radio ads often prove inefficient, requiring candidates to buy airtime in markets that extend beyond district lines, Internet ads give politicians and political groups greater discretion to target specific voters. For years, Google AdWords have allowed candidates to run ads tied to their names or other search terms – positive and negative – that might be associated with them. Now, those ads can be targeted to specific congressional districts, without going through the process of specifying additional details.

The new tool is already getting good reviews from the people trying to elect Republicans and Democrats to Congress. The National Republican Congressional Committee is using the tool to distribute videos in five congressional seats and has plans to do more.

“Any time you can be more specific in your advertising it is a big benefit to a political campaign,” said Gerrit Lansing, the digital director at the NRCC. “The ability to draw a precise circle around these convoluted districts is a big deal, and we’ll be taking full advantage.”